


Remember When

by onthighsbelongtotaemin



Category: SHINee
Genre: Boyfriends, Childhood Memories, Christmas, Couch Cuddles, Fire, M/M, Memories, Nostalgia, Scrapbooks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-02-15 16:53:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13035423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onthighsbelongtotaemin/pseuds/onthighsbelongtotaemin
Summary: Jinki, Kibum, & Taemin cuddle on the sofa in matching plaid pajamas remember their lives together from the days they met at SM to now.





	Remember When

Kibum snuggles in deep beneath the thick duvet.  The crimson and cream plaid of the blanket over his lap is a nice contrast to the sage and forest plaid of the flannel pajamas he wears that match the ones Jinki and Taemin each have on.  

They’re still in the kitchen pouring their own cups of cocoa while Kibum’s taken the opportunity to grab the center seat.  

A black scrapbook with their initials in silver script sits closed on the table in front of him and that in front of a blazing fire crackles.  The room is warm and the blanket warmer and the cocoa in his hands even warmer still.  Taemin is the first to join him, shifting the duvet a little too far to the left and he quickly tugs it back to where he wants it.  Jinki’s more careful when he takes his place, making sure to take his share and no more and slipping an arm around the back of the sofa to make more room.

“Who’s going to go first?” Taemin asks in a tone that makes clear that he wants it to be himself.  Kibum wants to answer that he’ll go first but he lets a pause be filled by Jinki saying that Taemin can.  Eagerly, the youngest of the three, but the one who trained the longest grabs up the scrapbook they all contributed to and opens it up on the first page.

The first page is a copy of Taemin’s acceptance letter after his audition.  The second is a copy of Kibum’s and then the first picture of the two of them together they remember taking & one they’ve seen online more than once.  The next is Jinki’s acceptance letter, followed soon by a few pictures of them on the rooftop where they used to practice, the one that’s circulated online & also the ones that they’ve kept hidden.

More pictures, and then letters.  Some are written by hand but most of them are screenshots of messages.  Candid photos begin to join and the ones from when they debut.

And then the ones they don’t like to remember.  Kibum added those.  Taemin’s hand stops and the page lays open in the middle of the scrapbook with a photograph that was taken a long time ago when hearts were broken and angry.

“Why did you put this in there?” Jinki asks quietly. 

“I didn’t,” Taemin answers, even though he doesn’t need to.  This is before Kibum.  Sort of.  Kibum was always a part of everything so maybe it was actually before Jinki.

“To remember,” Kibum murmurs, shuttling his hands around the blanket so that they each enfold one of Jinki’s and one of Taemin’s each.   “Can’t repeat our history if we don’t forget it.”  There’s quiet nodding and then the crinkling of paper as Taemin turns another page.

“Hyung!” he cries in mortification.  “No!”  There’s another candid, only this time Taemin is only half-awake with hair that sticks up everywhere and an indiscreet bruise at the base of his neck.  There are more pictures like that for more pages, filled by Kibum and Taemin, each of them more embarrassing than the next, each of them doing their best to find humiliating photographs of the men they love.

And then suddenly they change.  Suddenly it’s the pictures that Jinki chose and the theme alters abruptly from embarrassment to endearment and every picture is softer than the next.  Candids, yes, but of Kibum and Taemin at their best and most passionate.  

Photograph after photograph of Taemin at the piano.  Still after still of Kibum with his sketches and outlines.  There are black and whites of the three of them asleep in bed.  There are comparison shots where he’s managed to pose them in the same way in the present as they were when they were trainees without them even realizing it at the time, and captioned them with silly puns that somehow make Kibum cry and even Taemin is sniffling by the end of the book.

“I love you,” Jinki says softly, squeezing Kibum’s hand and saying it to both.  Ten years is a long time and he and Taemin have been through even longer than that.  And then Kibum.  Or maybe Kibum and Taemin and then Jinki.  Maybe it’s been more.  Maybe it’s been less.  They have the now.  

“I love you,” Taemin repeats first, squeezing Kibum’s hand and saying it to both.

“Jerks,” Kibum says, pulling back his hands and wiping his eyes.  Taemin laughs and wraps his arms around Kibum’s waist while Jinki hugs him around the shoulder.  

Later, the fire crackles across the room as they drink their cocoa, Taemin’s more marshmallows than drink, and argue about who did what and when and remember all the stories and memories that brought them to the one they’re building today.


End file.
